DARKSTAR, B-2, U-2 GET MORE MONEY; PALMDALE PROJECTS SET FOR $137 MILLION HIKE.

Byline: Jim Skeen Daily News Staff Writer

Funding for the DarkStar spy plane, more money for modifying B-2 stealth bombers and money for upgrades to the U-2 spy plane will be included in the 1999 defense budget, according to a House-Senate conference report released Friday.

DarkStar, an unmanned spy plane being built by Lockheed Martin Skunk Works in Palmdale, will receive $40.5 million in the defense budget, dodging a Senate effort to kill the program, congressional officials said.

The program was able to return to flight status this summer and get in two successful test flights after a two-year delay caused by the crash of the first aircraft.

When the Senate voted to drop DarkStar funding, supporters of the program interpreted the action as a message to its builders and the Defense Advanced Projects Research Agency, the program managers, that Congress wanted to see some progress.

``Obviously that message was received,'' said Greg Campbell, legislative director for Rep. Howard P. ``Buck'' McKeon, R-Santa Clarita, a DarkStar supporter.

The DarkStar funding was part of the $270.5 billion defense authorization conference report, the result of negotiations to iron out differences between the House and Senate versions of the 1999 defense bills. The conference report is expected to voted on later next week.

The first DarkStar aircraft made a successful first flight March 19, 1996, but was destroyed on takeoff during its second flight a month later.

Lockheed Martin and Boeing have spent $30 million to improve the aircraft, including redesigning the flight control and landing gear systems.

The conferees also agreed to increase the Defense Department's allocation for the B-2 by $86 million. The money will be used for planned upgrades and future modifications aimed at keeping the bomber's stealth characteristics state-of-the-art and making it easier to maintain.

``The Long Range Airpower Review Panel recently recommended that the administration and Congress fully support upgrades to the current U.S. bomber fleet,'' the conference report stated. ``The conferees support this conclusion and believe that upgrades to the entire fleet are a priority. Therefore, the conference authorized $275.9 million for post-production support of the B-2 bomber.''

Northrop Grumman employs about 2,500 people in Palmdale on the B-2 modifications. Originally, modifications to the bomber fleet were scheduled to end in 1999, but it was not known Friday what effect, if any, the additional money will have.

The bill also includes $10.3 million in electronics equipment upgrades and other improvements to U-2 spy planes. That work will be performed by Lockheed Martin Corp.'s Skunk Works in Palmdale.

DarkStar, produced by Lockheed Martin and Boeing, made its first flight June 29, restarting a flight test program that had been on hold for more than two years.

Skunk Works and its partners in the project, Boeing and Lockheed Martin Missiles & Space, are building two more DarkStar aircraft under a $58.4 million contract with the Defense Advanced Projects Research Agency, the same organization that initiated the F-117 stealth fighter program in the 1970s.

Wide, flat and tailless, with a 69-foot wingspan and a blunt fuselage only 15 feet long and 5 feet in diameter, the 8,600-pound aircraft is powered by an engine similar to the one used in the Cessna Citation business jet, capable of propelling DarkStar to altitudes above 45,000 feet.

DarkStar is intended to be the ``eye in the sky'' for battlefield commanders, transmitting video and radar information to ground forces. The stealthy, high-altitude aircraft is designed to be able to linger over a battlefield for more than eight hours and cover more than 14,000 square miles.

DarkStar will fly pre-programmed flights, conducting its entire mission without additional commands from the ground.